Bowling is a very popular pastime in the United States and throughout the world. Professional bowlers compete for large purses, and many people enjoy watching people with great skill bowl on television or in person. Countless amateur bowlers join bowling leagues and compete in weekly tournaments against other teams. Casual bowlers enjoy rainy Saturday afternoons bowling with friends or family.
To be a good bowler requires a combination of talent, skill and experience. The professional bowler has spent years perfecting his or her technique, and may practice daily to more finely hone his or her skills. Serious amateur bowlers may play in leagues once or twice a week, and may also practice on their own. But people who bowl only occasionally for fun cannot maintain the skill level of the more serious bowler. Because of the way bowling is scored, less experienced bowlers can be disappointed when they compete against more skilled bowlers.
For example, consider a game in which an experienced amateur bowler competes against a less experienced bowler. The skilled bowler may roll strikes (i.e., knock down all of the pins with one ball) during many or most of the frames of a standard ten-frame bowling game. In the occasional frame when the experienced bowler does not roll a strike, he or she is likely to get a spare (i.e., all pins remaining after the first ball are knocked down with the second ball of a standard frame so that no pins are left standing at the end of the frame). The inexperienced bowler, on the other hand, may be as likely to roll a gutter ball as a spare or a strike. The inexperienced bowler may get an occasional strike or a spare, but in most frames he or she will knock down only some (and not all) of the pins. Because of the way strikes and spares are weighted under standard bowling scoring rules, the experienced bowler's score may be twice (or more) the score of the inexperienced bowler.
In tournament play, less experienced bowlers are given handicaps to help equalize effective scores despite great disparity in skill levels. Under the handicap system, experienced bowlers effectively "give" the less experienced bowler some number of points at the beginning of the game. For example, a less experienced bowler with a 35 handicap will be given a bowling score of 150 when he or she bowls 115. The use of a handicap helps to equalize competition and keep tournaments interesting for all--even though bowlers of different experience and skill levels are competing against one another.
Unfortunately, handicaps do not necessarily guarantee that each game will be interesting. For example, anyone who has watched an amateur bowling tournament appreciates that by the third or fourth frame of a standard 10-frame game, most of the participants have no chance of winning and start using the remaining frames for practice. In highly competitive tournaments, bowling a low score on the initial frames of the tournament effectively takes the bowler out of the running to win the tournament. This can cause some bowlers to lose interest--especially if they are having an "off night" or are out of practice.
Bowling games using non-standard scoring techniques and/or objectives are known. As one example, bowlers occasionally play the game of "low ball." The objective of the "low ball" game is to knock down the fewest number of pins without rolling a gutter ball. In another bowling variation called "odd ball," the bowler scores only if he knocks down an odd number of pins. Experience bowlers know many such variants of the basic bowling game, and may occasionally play them for a change of pace or as a way to practice particular aspects of their technique. However, such variants are typically not used in tournament play, and may have only limited interest to the less experienced bowler.
Operators of bowling centers are constantly looking for ways to interest broader segments of the population in bowling. People who operate bowling centers want to ensure that the bowling experience is interesting and exciting for their customers. Increased excitement makes the bowling experience more fun and enjoyable, generating more repeat business for the bowling center. More people coming into the bowling center to bowl means increased income to the bowling center operator.
The present invention provides a new approach to bowling that maintains a high level of player fun and excitement while offering the challenge of a game of strategy and skill and providing frequent winners. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the player attempts to bowl sets of predetermined pin fall objectives. In one specific example, each predetermined pin fall objective may comprise a pin fall combination, e.g., the number of pins the player knocks down on each of two successive rolls of the bowling ball. For example, one predetermined pin fall combination might be "71"--meaning the player is to knock down seven pins with the first ball and one additional pin with the second ball (leaving 2 pins standing at the end of the frame). Another predetermined pin fall combination might be a strike ("X")--in which all ten pins are knocked down with the first ball and there is no need to roll a second ball in the frame.
In accordance with a more detailed aspect provided by the present invention, predetermined pin fall counts or combinations may be visually recorded within a scoring grid of cells. The grid thus defines a set of predetermined pin fall counts or combinations. In one illustrative example., a three by three square scoring grid comprising nine cells may be used. A predetermined pin fall combination is recorded in each cell of the grid. In one example, the first player who success fully bowls any one of certain subsets of the nine predetermined pin fall combinations in the set (e.g., three cells aligned horizontally, vertically or diagonally or the four corner cells) wins the game.
Thus, the present invention provides a game of skill wherein the quantity of pins the bowler knocks down with each roll of the bowling ball is compared with a subset of a predetermined pattern for a possible match; and the outcome of the game is determined by the attainment, through the skill of the bowler in knocking down certain quantities of pins with the bowling ball, of a combination of more than one subset match such that the combination establishes a particular arrangement according to predetermined rules.
In one example, all players play the same scoring grid in a synchronized manner. However, each player can choose any of several different subsets of predetermined pin fall combinations to try for. In one example, the number of predetermined pin fall combinations in the subset is less than the number of pin fall combinations in the set. For any given game, there may be a number of different winning pin fall combination subsets. The player may choose which subset he or she is trying for--and the order of the pin fall combinations he or she bowls.
In the preferred embodiment, the number of pins that must be knocked down to meet any pin fall objective is ten or less--making it possible to meet the pin fall objective with the two balls and ten pins of the standard bowling protocol and configuration. Such bowling games provided in accordance with this invention are thus fully compatible with conventional automatic bowling equipment such as, for example, bowling lane pin clearing equipment that clears the lane of all knocked clown pins after each ball roll, and resets the pins into the starting configuration after the player has rolled two successive balls.
In one example implementation, paper scoring sheets may be used to play the bowling games. In accordance with another aspect provided by this invention, in one preferred embodiment, scoring is performed automatically using a computerized automatic bowling scoring system. In this computerized embodiment, grids of predetermined pin fall objectives are automatically displayed on a visual display such as a video monitor. As bowlers successfully bowl to match cells in the grid, the computer automatically changes the appearance of the grid display to reflect the bowler's success. For example, the computerized bowling system might cause the cell(s) the bowler has already matched to flash or be displayed in a different color. Upon matching a predetermined subset of cells defined by the grid, that subset may flash or change color to indicate that the bowler has successfully completed the game. In group bowling, the first person to complete the game wins. New games are thus begun every few frames--providing frequent winners and a high interest and excitement level.